A material marking method includes: generating a code; randomly selecting at least one area of the material; and marking by laser shot on the surface of, or inside the material in each the area of the material to represent the code there in a way that cannot be detected by the naked eye. Preferentially, the randomly selecting step is performed for each item of material to be marked. Preferentially, during the code generating step, a two-dimensional bar code is generated, and during the marking step, the two-dimensional bar code is represented. Preferably, the method includes marking the material in order to represent a mark visible to the naked eye, at least one part of a marking area of a mark visible to the naked eye is selected randomly and/or the visible mark bears an item of information representative of the position of at least one area where the code that cannot be detected by the naked eye is represented.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A material marking method, that comprises: a step of generating a code; a step of selecting at least one area of said material among a plurality of areas; a step of marking by laser shot on the surface of said material or inside said material in each said selected area of the material to represent said code there in a way that cannot be detected by the naked eye; and a step of visibly marking said material in order to represent a mark on it that is visible to the naked eye, wherein said visible mark bears an item of information representative of the position of at least one selected area where the code that cannot be detected by the naked eye is represented.
2. The material marking method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of selecting at least one area of the material is performed for each item of material to be marked.
3. The material marking method according to claim 1 wherein, during the step of generating a code, a two-dimensional bar code is generated and during the step of marking said two-dimensional bar code is represented.
4. The material marking method according to claim 1 wherein, said material constitutes a metal, plastic or ceramic item.
5. The material marking method according to claim 1 wherein, during the step of marking, the material is engraved to a depth of less than five micrometers.
6. The material marking method according to claim 1 wherein, during the step of marking, in order to realize a mark formed of dots, a laser shot is carried out with a duration of less than ten picoseconds for each dot of the mark.
7. The material marking method according to claim 6 , wherein, during the step of marking, the largest dimension of each dot is less than 50 micrometers.
8. The material marking method according to claim 1 , wherein, during the step of selecting at least one area of said material, at least one part of a marking area of a mark visible to the naked eye is selected randomly.
9. The material marking method according to claim 1 wherein, during the step of selecting at least one area of said material, at least one part of a printed area is selected.
10. The material marking method according to claim 1 that further comprises a step of marking by laser shot on the surface of the material or inside the material in an area of predetermined position in order to represent said code there in a way that cannot be detected by the naked eye.
11. The material marking method according to claim 1 wherein, during at least one step of marking by laser shot, a single laser pulse and an array optical modulator, on which said code is represented, are utilized.
12. The material marking method according to claim 1 wherein, during at least one step of marking by laser shot, a movement system using a galvanometer mirror, whose configuration depends on the area selected, is utilized.
13. A material marking device, that comprises: a generating means for generating a code; a selecting means for selecting at least one area of said material among a plurality of areas; a marking means for marking by laser shot on the surface of said material or inside said material in each said selected area of the material to represent said code there in a way that cannot be detected by the naked eye; and a marking means for visibly marking said material in order to represent a mark on it that is visible to the naked eye, wherein said visible mark bears an item of information representative of the position of at least one area where the code that cannot be detected by the naked eye is represented.
14. The material marking device according to claim 13 , wherein the means for selecting at least one area of the material is configured to select at least one area for each item of material to be marked.
15. The material marking device according to claim 13 wherein the means for generating a code is configured to generate a two-dimensional bar code and the means for marking said two-dimensional bar code is configured to represent said bar code on the surface of the material or inside the material in the selected area.
16. The material marking device according to claim 13 that further comprises a means for marking by laser shot on the surface of the material or inside the material in an area of predetermined position in order to represent said code there in a way that cannot be detected by the naked eye.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
December 14, 2007
January 1, 2013
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